SENATOBIA – Northwest head men's basketball coach Jimmy Adams finalized his 2012-13 recruiting class last week, and will welcome a total of seven new faces to the program.
"We filled our need at the point guard position and added another post in the rotation," Adams said. "We already have solid wing play and I feel some of these guys will push our returning sophomores."
Rashon Coleman, Dajon Reno and Josh Hamilton join the Rangers from Tupelo High School, last year's 6A State Runners-Up who finished 26-9 overall. Coleman and Reno have each signed basketball scholarships, while Hamilton signed to play football for Northwest and will join the team after the fall. The trio has played together since the seventh grade.
Coleman, a 5-foot-11 point guard, was ranked 22nd in the Mississippi Hoop Report Class of 2012 rankings. He earned all-state honorable mention and all-tournament team honors as a senior, averaging 15 points, 4.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds-per-game. As a junior, Coleman won the 2010 Poplar Bluff Showdown Three-Point Shootout.
Reno, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard and one of the top recruits in the state, averaged 12.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists-per-game last season, whereas Hamilton, a 6-foot-3 small forward, averaged 7.7 points and 7.0 rebounds-per-game.
Multiple sport athlete Tavion Primer is coming off all-state honors at Calhoun City. The 6-foot-3 combo guard and prolific scorer averaged double figures as a senior and was named to the Clarion-Ledger's Top 40 Players to Watch list.
Josh Windham, a 6-foot-1 combo guard, signed with the Rangers from Clarksdale. Team captain and selected as Player of the Year, Windham finished off his high school career with a stellar senior season. A four-year varsity player, Windham averaged 18.2 points-per-game as a senior with 15 20-point games and a season-high 32 against 4A powerhouse Amanda Elzy.
Closing out the signing class are sophomore transfers DJ Biggs from Mid-South CC (Olive Branch) andCharles Eaton from Lawson State CC (Selma, Ala.).
The Rangers return nine sophomores, including four starters, and are coming off a 12-12 season in which they advanced to the state and region tournaments.
The 2012-13 season will tip-off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1 vs. Southwest Mississippi.
